How far out of favor has Kenshin Kawakami fallen in Atlanta? Well, yesterday the Braves demoted him to Double-A, where he’ll earn $6.7 million while pitching against hitters a dozen years his junior.

David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitutionwrites that they sent Kawakami all the way down to Double-A because “they want to keep the Triple-A rotation open to pitchers who could have an impact in Atlanta this season.”

I understand souring on a player and Kawakami certainly hasn’t been very impressive since coming over from Japan, but the lengths the Braves are going to banish a pitcher with a 4.32 career ERA seems odd. They dumped him from the rotation in the middle of last season and have spent the past six months unsuccessfully trying to unload his contract, but that doesn’t make Kawakami a useless player.

He’d be a perfectly decent fourth or fifth starter on any number of teams and could come in handy for the Braves at some point this season if they weren’t so hellbent on completely erasing him from their plans. His win-loss record is ugly, but Kawakami’s secondary numbers and 4.32 ERA show a pitcher good enough to contribute to a big-league staff. And now he’s a 35-year-old riding buses in Double-A.

He may be a perfectly decent 4th or 5th starter for OTHER teams, but he is the 8th-best starter Atlanta has. It will take at least 3 injuries to starters for Kawakami to get back to Atlanta, whether he’s in AA or AAA.

Also, I don’t know who said this, but I have read the Braves wanted to get him out of his Atlanta mansion (AAA Gwinnett is an hour outside of Atlanta) to entice him to help facilitate a trade. Putting him in AA and keeping him away from home could do it.